Marriage Preparations

On Saturday afternoon, we had our reception planning.  We're going with - shocker - Christmas themed food considering we won't be home for Christmas this year.  We're having roast turkey breast, mashed potatoes, root veggies, cranberry chutney - yummm!  This will be tasty!  The cake needs to be worked on, because I hadn't even given it any thought.  What kind of cake should we get?  We were thinking a chocolate first layer, a lemon second layer, and a vanilla/chocolate third layer.  I have some work to do.  Well, more work to do - the invitations came in (correctly!) on Friday.  I will be addressing for weeks!

On Saturday night, we met with our sponsor couple.  They're very nice people from the parish in which we are getting married.  We really did enjoy spending time with them.  They have three children - 14, 11, and 9 I believe - so they're a bit older than we.  We did some exercises on how well we know each other and ourselves and exercises on our respective backgrounds.  Soon, we will be taking a "test" to see which areas we should focus on discussing and working through as a couple.  I'm very happy that we are working on our marriage before anything happens, rather than controlling damage afterward.

On Sunday, we went to Mass.  The husband in our sponsor couple had mentioned that he was going to 8:30 mass that day, so we decided to check it out.  *B* even gave me breakfast in bed/on-the-couch-where-I-fell-asleep.  We made it there just in time, even though I was sure we'd be late.  It was much better than the last two Masses I had been to.  I'm thinking that I'm really making some breakthroughs here.  I could really see us going to Mass there from now on.

Simple Pleasure Thurs- errr, Friday - err, Monday?

Oops!  I meant to post yesterday, Friday, but my simple pleasure is exactly the reason I didn't post.  My simple pleasure is reconnecting with my fiancé.

Our first and only real argument, though we never raised voices, was a few weeks ago.  Father's Day to be precise.  We had gone to Mass in a neighboring parish.  I had meant to go many times, but I never got to it.  It was right after Camden, and I had felt really connected to religion for the first time in a while.  The Mass was awful.  Really awful.  I hated it.  But I knew that it was the priest, not the Church, that I was unhappy with.  So on the ride from the church to *B*'s parent's house, we discussed religion.

*B* wasn't raised with any religious education or association.  He had only been to a Bible camp with friends once, and they told him he and his family were going to Hell.  Most recently, he had been exploring non-Christian religious ideas.  I wasn't thrilled with it, but considered it harmless.

When we decided to get married in the Catholic church, we knew we had to answer affirmatively to three questions:

• Have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?
  
• Will you love and honor each other as husband and wife for the rest of your lives?
  
• Will you accept children lovingly from God, and bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church?
  
  

When the priest had first told us these questions, he put the third one as "will you expose your children to the law of Christ and his Church?"  *B* was okay with that.  When the priest at the Father's Day mass reiterated the question as posed above, *B* started to get worried.

So anyhoo, the whole way to his parents' house, we talked about religion.  Since his awful experience with Christians (of some Protestant denomination), he was very leery.  To be fair, I was inordinately dismissive of his current beliefs.  Either way, I felt so cut off from him.

Last night, we went out to dinner.  We had been having a good conversation, so rather than going home, we went for a drive.  We got back on the subject of religion, but in a much better way.  I asked him what he actually believes (because even though you categorize yourself, no one believes all of what their religion says 100%).  The things he identified were not mutually exclusive from Christianity, and forms of it are actually present within Christian teachings.  We talked about how unlikely it was that some dude died for something he something he did wrong, even though he hasn't done anything.  We talked about taking the Bible literally versus investigating the metaphors behind the passages.  Then, we got home and picked out the readings for our wedding.  I haven't felt so connected to him in a long time, and I certainly haven't felt connected to him in that context.

Totally Unexpected

Last night, I dreamed about an earthquake that shook the bed.  It wasn't hard, and nothing was falling down around me, it just shook the bed a little.  So today I woke up, and guess what - there WAS an earthquake this morning!  I probably felt it in my sleep and figured I dreamed it.  *B* was awake and eating breakfast when it happened.  We had a 3.6 magnitude earthquake just outside of DC.  It was felt from PA to West Virginia.  There has never been a stronger earthquake in the area since records were first kept by the USGS in 1974.  That being said, I've felt stronger ones (while awake) when I was in Tokyo.  But to have it happen at home - that's cool!

It also makes me think about my preparedness efforts a little more.  When I originally thought about my endeavor, I figured the only problems my area has to deal with are ice storms, blizzards, severe thunderstorms, floods, and the very rare twister.  The biggest tornado that I can recall happened to the south of us by a good bit, and it was a total shock.

This is a before and after comparison of an F4 tornado in Maryland.  The part that looks like an eraser mark was the path of the tornado.

So apparently earthquakes are on my radar now.  While I'm not battening down the hatches for "the big one" like those in California do, I think that I'll watch out for a couple of things.

1. No pictures or heavy objects above the bed.  We used to have shelves above our bed in our apartment.  I had considered putting them back up, but maybe I'll choose a different wall.  As evidenced by the rather large scar on my dad's forehead, heavy objects can sometimes fall out of the wall on their own, earthquake or no earthquake.
2. Heavy objects go on the backs of shelves.  This is mostly related to my pantry.  While the shelves are not bolted to the wall (mostly because I need to change the pantry layout), I can make my own setup more stable as it is.
3. Keep a bag of supplies under the bed.   I had heard of people keeping shoes, a flashlight, water, and a granola bar under their bed in a ziploc.  Maybe that's not such a bad idea after all.

What kinds of natural disasters do you prepare for?

Bad News, Good News, and Overdue Post #1

Bad news - that little illness I've been battling beat me over the head last night/this morning.  When I woke up, I couldn't really talk at all and my throat was killing me.  I shouldn't take off of my summer jobs because they're so short.

Good news - I did take off of work.  This is the first day I've had to actually relax in a long time.

Overdue post - the garden.  We've had a lot of problems with things eating our plants lately.  Our lima beans and squash are the hardest hit.

Limas with chewed leaves

Stripped lima stems

Zucchini blossom taken over by ants and cucumber beetles

There are good things brewing in the garden though.  The same zucchini plant pictured above has a little guy struggling to make it.  Can you find him?

Baby zucchini

Lima bean with minimal damage

 

Amish paste tomatoes growing nicely

Sunflowers with actual tiny little buds on them

We're all about encouraging local life around here.  So we've got two bird feeders, two bird baths, and a ton of pollen producing plants for the bees.  At one point a lot of bees would have been scary (I'm allergic), but I've grown to accept and actually like them.

*B*'s dad made us this feeder.  We've put some really nice seed in there - no shells.  Don't worry about fat birds, the squirrels will eat it all. 

This is a finch bird feeder that we recently got.  *B*'s parents had one and it attracted the most gorgeous birds.  I haven't seen one on ours yet though.  Side note:  the feeder is suspended on our paracord clothesline by a carabiner.

These gorgeous flowers attract a lot of bees.  Does anyone know what they are??

This is my state flower.  What are they and what state am I in?  Side note:  Until this very moment, I thought that it was illegal to remove these.  My mom always told me so.  There is no such law!

Our latest harvest - red beefsteak and roma tomatoes, one unripe amish paste tomato, one carrot, two shallots, two teensy heads of garlic, and four onions.

This one didn't make it to the harvest picture.  Nom!

I Can See the Light

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!  I have nine more days at one of my jobs, and one of those days is a trip to a local amusement park.  After Monday, July 26th, I'm back to one job at a time.  That is, until school starts back up three weeks later.  When I started my second job, they asked if I could stay on through the school year.  I said I thought I could.  I'm really not sure if I can keep up a 12 hour a day schedule.  But I think I'm going to try as long as I hold out.

When I told my grandmother that I was working two jobs this summer, she told me that I was going to get sick.  Nah, I thought, I'll be fine.  It's 95 degrees out.  Who gets sick in the middle of summer?  Wouldn't you know it, two days ago my throat started hurting, yesterday I got migraines, and today I'm stuffed up like I've been playing in the rain in January.

That being said, as soon as I get a chance to breathe (literally and figuratively), I promise an awesome pantry post.  Hopefully tomorrow.

Wedding Drama

Oy vey!  Things have been crazy around here.  As far as the wedding goes, everything has been planned for a while.  We've just been waiting and paying things off little by little.  Unlike many people these days, I refuse to take out a loan for my wedding.  That's just crazy.

So anyhoo, I finally got around to ordering our invitations.  They're so pretty!

 

I originially found them at Papyrus for $500+.  I almost died and resigned myself to hand-making my invitations.  Then, I found a website that sold them for more than half off.  That I could deal with.  So yesterday, I bit the bullet and ordered the invitations.  *B* and I worked together to come up with wording and everything.  

Here's where it got ugly.  We decided we didn't want any kind of a quote on the bottom, so we selected the option "no quote desired".  It turns out we were supposed to delete those words before ordering.  I missed that tiny little direction.  It now appears that "no quote desired" will be on the bottom of my invitation!  I emailed the company twice (two different email addresses) within 15 minutes of ordering.  I am praying and hoping that they can fix it before printing.  Otherwise, I have to pay to have them reprinted.

The Care and Keeping of Plants and Animals

Plants
My garden hasn't been doing all that well lately.  Today, we harvested our last shot of snap peas.  They are so delicious.  We followed advice I found online and ripped out the plants, then scoured the plants for the pods.  We got a fair amount for a last harvest.  This is what it looks like sans peas:

Given our recent 100+ temperatures, I don't think the roma tomatoes look too bad.  They're just a little dead around the bottom.  And some have blossom end rot.  And the bugs are eating some.  Okay, maybe they're doing pretty lousy.

My squash is also being killed by cucumber beetles.  Specimen one:

 Specimen two:

I only have one two-inch by half-inch yellow squash growing.  All the people at the farmer's markets have TONS of squash and zucchini.  I'm working on getting these suckers to produce.

I did get one ripe tomato off of the semi-dying plant above.  Isn't she gorgeous? :o)

And so far, I've got one female-palm-sized green pepper.  Of everything still growing right now, the peppers are doing the best.  Each plant has at least one decent pepper on it.  None of the others are quite this big though.

Animals
After the hamster cage fiasco this morning, we needed to shuffle cages.  *B*'s big red-eared slider (a terrapin) has needed a new tank for a long, long time.  But aquariums are very expensive.  He decided, in a moment of brilliance, to buy a $130 150 gallon Rubbermaid stock tank rather than the $400 150 gallon aquarium.  Shamrock looks so happy (when he's not hiding from me).

Because Shamrock got a tank upgrade, my Terpy (same species) got a tank upgrade as well.

My turtle's not camera shy though.  Though he doesn't look very big, he's HUGE!  He's about the size of my hand, fingers included.  He was one of those Myrtle Beach silver dollar turtles.  They said they'd only get to big as big as their tank.  That is true, because if you don't get them a bigger tank, they die.  So he's been through five tanks now in his three years of life.

And as for Sixie, she'll get Terpy's old tank tomorrow.  It has been a looooong day, and she's doing okay for now in the bucket in our closet.  We did, however, find a fair amount of blood on the sock in her bucket.  I can't find a single speck of blood on her, though.  I'm really hoping that it's not an internal trauma.  She's not squeaking in pain, and I was able to handle her just as much as usual.  This hamster may have been named because she was the sixth animal I brought into our house, but I'm beginning to suspect she's got six lives, too.